4 stars for A Soldier's Duty (Theirs Not to Reason Why book 1) by Jean Johnson.
As the book title dictates, this is the story of a soldier, that of Ia, an 18-year old girl. Surprisingly, it does not feel like reading a young adult novel in the least even though the protagonist is an adolescent. I think bulk of the reason lies with the theme. Afterall, the career of Ia revolves around military, combat, weaponry training and topics related to fighting, tactics, strategy, logistics, motivation and most of all, leadership.
I am particularly impressed by the author’s introduction to the arrays of military weapons. I may not know if the armaments are for real or purely fabricated out of imagination, but I do know that either the author has done a very detailed job of research or she has an ingenious mind when it comes to inventing munitions.
Having travelled almost seven hundred light-years from her mother world, Sanctuary, an independent colony world which is also the heaviest of the heavyworlds, Ia chooses to serve in the Terran military so as to enjoy all the rights and privileges that come along as a converted Terran citizen. To see her plan through, Ia signs herself up at the Recruitment Center in Melbourne, Australia Province, Earth, to join the TUPSF-Marine Corps.
In my opinion, a good science fiction story is almost always enhanced by the element of fantasy. In A Soldier’s Duty, it comes in the form of psi powers, commonly known as psychic abilities. Yes, our heroine Ia is gifted with an inherent talent to skim timestreams, to dip into waters of the past or future, though her skills are more skewed towards precognition than postcognition.
Alas, following the future is not always like following a script. Not only is the future fluid, every so often, there are simply too many just-as-good options to pick out the absolute best. So it is of utmost importance that Ia navigates all of the possibilities with much accuracy instead of counting on luck to steer the currents. Because if Ia plays her cards right, some of those who train with her will end up helping her career. However, if she plays them wrongly, they can turn into a hindrance. Nevertheless utimately, it is not about Ia; it is about the whole galaxy and its existence where in the future, lives will depend on her precognitive psi ability to concentrate in chaotic combat conditions, where split-second decisions can mean life or death.
The story is well balanced on how Ia begins her military career with the first half of the book focusing on her training to graduation from the Basic Instruction requirements of the Space Force Branch Marine Corps. The rest of the book concentrates on Ia's service assignment to her official first duty post: life on board a military starship, a modest sized battleship TUPSF Liu Ji which is home to Ia for 2.5 years.
As much as I enjoy this book 1 of the Theirs Not series, there are two things which I do not quite take pleasure in and see eye to eye with. The first is where Ia meets a certain Captain James Silverstone, a paraphysician, a human-shaped Feyori. Those sections involving Doctor Silverstone are rather distracting and confusing, and I find myself reading those parts more than once to get the author's intended meaning across. Next is the long chapters. It makes for a challenging break when I want to pause for a breather in-between chapters.
All in all, I have a good time with this space opera novel which is not only well written sequentially but also one which brings across the message that with power comes responsibility, with destruction comes restitution, and with crime comes punishment.
Publisher: Ace Books
Publication date: 31 Jul 2011
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Ia is a precog, tormented by visions of the future where her home galaxy has been devastated. To prevent this vision from coming true, Ia enlists in the Terran United Planets military with a plan to become a soldier who will inspire generations for the next three hundred years-a soldier history will call Bloody Mary.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
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